A recent article in the University of Michigan newspaper, The Record, profiles the new online video library that the university's Ford School of Public Policy has recently rolled out. The video site, which is built on the Brightcove platform, has only been available for a little more than a month, but already contains 87 videos which date back to 2003. Video content ranges from lectures by world-renowned economists and politicians to interviews with former presidents.

Most recently, one video of a lecture from a U.S. Senator generated quite a bit of buzz based on comments the Senator made about healthcare reform. The video was soon picked up by a host of blogs and third party outlets and drew roughly 180,000 views and 1,800 click throughs to the Ford School site in just four days.

The article notes that while the buzz and traffic around the video is great for the Ford School's new site, it also points to the importance of video as a marketing tool. Over the past year, we've seen a noticeable up tick in the number of educational institutions who are using Brightcove / online video to promote their schools and programs to prospective students. As with other industries, video has become a very effective tool for these colleges and universities to convey their messages and value propositions, as well as to build communities around the great work that is being done each day at their institution.